


Talking to the Moon

by boychik



Category: A Wizardry Enchantment
Genre: First Love, Heartbreak, Kissing, Limerence, M/M, Succubus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-19 15:42:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17004456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boychik/pseuds/boychik
Summary: It was a sunny day in May that Takeru’s life changed in a way he could not anticipate. Like the effect of a butterfly’s fluttering wings, change begun subtly, softly, and would go on to shift his world from the underground.





	Talking to the Moon

**i.**

It was a sunny day in May that Takeru’s life changed in a way he could not anticipate. Like the effect of a butterfly’s fluttering wings, change begun subtly, softly, and would go on to shift his world from the underground.

Takeru was walking home from school at three in the afternoon, thinking of nothing much, as the sun sent its fiercest rays to shine down on their town. After passing through the front gate and entering his family home, Takeru dropped his backpack at the front door and took off his shoes, staring curiously at the pink-haired guy sitting at their kitchen table.

“Who are you?” Takeru blurted out.

“Takeru! Don’t be rude,” his brother Mikoto said.

The pink-haired guy sitting at their kitchen table let out a laugh, lightly. “This is your little brother, Mikoto?”

Mikoto nodded and gestured for Takeru to come over. “Takeru, meet Rui. Rui, Takeru.”

“Hi Takeru,” Rui said politely. “I’ll be living with you from today.”

Takeru bowed then peered up into a pair of sparkling red eyes.

“Are you in high school? How old are you?” Takeru couldn't stop himself. The questions tumbled out too quickly somehow, uncharacteristically of Takeru. “I’m 14 years old. I’m going to be 15 soon then I’m going to the upper school next year. Will you be staying at our house long?” Mikoto looked on in awe as his typically reticent younger brother spilled words as though he were tripping on air.

Rui chuckled. “We have an inquisitive one here, I see. To answer your question, I guess you could say I'm 18 in this world.”

“In this world...? You’re not wearing a uniform,” Takeru said, taking in the older man’s outfit with amazement as Rui shook his head. He felt entranced looking at the brightly-colored outfit so different from his own staid blue middle school uniform. Some sort of asymmetrical kimono with modern gloves and a single sleeve...? Rui’s bare arm instinctively drew his attention, Takeru’s wide eyes zeroing in on his smooth shoulder like a moth to a light.

“I don’t have to,” Rui said. “I can wear whatever I want.”

“You look...different, though.” Takeru cocked his head and openly gazed at Rui as Mikoto chastised him.

“Oh you mean all this?” Rui gestured to his elaborate clothing. “That’s because I’m a succubus.”

“A succubus...? Isn’t that...?” _Something perverted?!_ Takeru couldn’t finish the thought aloud. He flushed as red as Rui’s eyes, his cheeks like two cherry tomatoes.

“I see you’ve heard something about us...” Rui said, letting Takeru’s cheeks suffer for a minute longer. “However, due to our association with incubi, a lot of people get the wrong idea. Unlike traditional incubi, the succubus doesn’t generally take on a sexual role in our modern world...”

Takeru’s blush faded as he listened to Rui’s explanation about what he did as a succubus and how it was in no way perverted. When Rui paused, he asked, “Does that mean you’re gonna look into my dreams?”

Rui saw a flash of curiosity and fear in Takeru’s eyes. _Cute..._ he thought briefly, looking at the younger boy’s scared face. “Not unless there’s something in there to help us with this case,” Rui said with a smile. “You tell me...is there something I should look into?”

“No, no!” said Takeru, waving his hands in denial. To his chagrin, he flashed a smile, breaking his serious expression.

“Didn’t think so.” Rui gave Takeru a lazy smile from across the messy table.

“So...what are you helping my brother with?” Takeru asked.

Rui smiled. “We’re gaining information on a case.” Open books were strewn across the table, carefully written notes on investigative information and potential strategies for intervention delineated within.

“Oh...” Takeru frowned as he took in the magical complexities of the notes. “I don’t like magic at all, actually,” he announced.

“Tch, don’t make unnecessary comments...Takeru, let us work!” Mikoto said before shooing him away. Rui turned back to the note-strewn table. Takeru felt a small wave of disappointment having Rui turn his back on him, but pushed the feeling down.

 _Mikoto is annoying enough_ , he thought. _I’ll just keep away from the both of them._ He gave one last wave before bidding Rui goodbye.

 

**ii.**

Nearly a year has come and gone since Takeru and Rui first met. Early summer again sends her sunbeams to turn the house golden in the afternoons. It has been a long time since the two interacted more than the perfunctory hi-and-bye shuffling of the afternoons and evenings. Takeru’s shoulders are getting broader, and he is still stubbornly against becoming a wizard. He is used to Rui coming and going from the house daily, though Rui stays long while he works with Mikoto in dissecting private crimes.

Five days a week, Takeru comes home from school and sees the two older boys and all their books sprawled out at the kitchen table. Despite the heat, Mikoto and Rui would work diligently every day. Lately Takeru caught sight of their hands overlapping from time to time, turning the pages of a notebook or grabbing snacks off a shelf to bring when they went to research on the road. Lately Takeru feels a growing hunger as he shoots taller, and feels a flame of mixed curiosity and jealousy licking at his heart.

He won’t admit his jealousy openly, lacking such a closeness as Mikoto and Rui appear to have as they work, but acknowledges the feeling within himself.

“What do you think of Rui?” he asks Mikoto  one evening as they stand at the bathroom sink, brushing their teeth.

“Well, his hair is pretty pink,” says Mikoto drily. “And he’s pretty smart...”

Takeru glances upward. “It seems you guys have become close...”

“Close, huh?” Mikoto says with a serious expression. “Kinda...despite him being an succubus, we do work together every day...that’s just the nature of the contract. Are you jealous?” Mikoto reaches out and ruffles Takeru’s hair.

“Hey!” Takeru squawks. “Stop that...!”

Mikoto smiles down at him. “You'll have a partner like him someday too, Takeru. Just focus on school for now, and passing your exams.”

“I'm not going to be a wizard!” Takeru protested. “I'm going to be doctor or a firefighter or a teacher...anything but a wizard!”

Mikoto just raises an eyebrow and ruffles harder. “Oh, Takeru! How naive children are. You don’t even know what you want...”

“Yes I do!” Takeru yells back, slapping his brother’s hand away.

“I’m sure you’ll be a wizard,” Mikoto scoffs. “You’ll see...”

Takeru boils in his uniform. This kind of condescension only serves to drive their family apart. Harmless in intent, or merely meant to undermine him, it doesn’t matter. He almost regrets asking Mikoto about Rui, though his brother’s answer mollified him. There is something about Rui that seems to soften his brother’s sharp edges if only slightly. _Some kind of invitation in that rosy aura..._ Takeru pushes the senseless thoughts away and heads out for a run.

Running through the forest and down by the river, his breath rasps as he pushes himself faster. When he gets to the top of the hill, he stops. He stands there, watching the sun set. As the sun disappears below the horizon, a chill sets in. Takeru sits and wraps his arms around his skinny legs. When the last of the colors fades from the sky, he heads back home.

Walking back to the house at night, jacketless Takeru shivers in the cool air. A black blur flashes across his path, and he starts for a moment, startled. He sees two glowing eyes staring at him from across the road. Just a small black cat. _Scared of me?_ he wonders, and smiles at the thought.

Back at the house, he slips off his shoes, kicking Rui’s to the side and replacing Rui’s shoes with his own. He stares a moment, then diverts his eyes from the spot where Rui’s shoes had been. Takeru runs up the stairs, not caring whether his brother or Rui hears—washes his face and draws the covers around him in bed before succumbing to sleep.

 

**iii.**

The air changes as summer approaches and the end of Mikoto and Rui’s case draws near. The last of the cherry blossom petals fade out of sight and the scent of honeysuckles pervade the atmosphere. Sometimes when Takeru sees Rui, or even just hears his voice or laugh sound gently from upstairs or sees Rui’s shoes by the door before he leaves, his heart aches. He makes up his mind to tell Rui how he feels, but how? He’s no good at writing—authentically, from the heart—he tries composing a letter a couple times but ends up crumpling his childish attempts and tossing them away. He’s no good at writing but when he imagines telling Rui face to face he feels like he can’t breathe. He decides on a verbal confession. No shy letter would do. Nor mincing words. He would have to be bold. Fifteen years old, old enough to act like a man.

After he brushes his teeth at night, he locks the bathroom door, stands in front of the mirror and practices. He rolls his shoulders back, flexes his jaw a couple times, and speaks softly so Mikoto won’t hear: “Rui, I wanted to tell you something before you went back home...” Pause. _Is he even going back to the eidolon world after graduation? Or is he staying here indefinitely?_

“Rui, you’re almost done helping Mikoto with your case, and I was wondering if you were planning on staying here a little longer?” Pause. _What if he says no?_ Although he spent fifteen easy years living without Rui’s existence, it was somehow difficult to think back to those days, which now seemed shrouded in the fog of the past. It felt painful to imagine Rui leaving.

“Rui, there’s something I want to talk to you about.” Pause. Too serious. Like a couple breaking up— _We need to talk_. “Rui, there’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.” Pause. Not too bad, but a little ominous.

“Rui, I’ve wanted to bring this up for a long time but I never found the right moment...” Sometimes, he can’t even get past the word _Rui_ before he’s stumbling over his words and he has to start over. To his credit, Takeru has always had a great poker face. It’s the inside that's the problem. And with his insides a mess, he has trouble, finding fault in all of his words.

 

**iv.**

Before Takeru has a chance to confess, Rui comes to him.

So was the scene that he wished!

In the end, it was Takeru who came to Rui, shyly but boldly, asking attention at his doorstep. Confession rehearsals hadn’t prepared him for this part. He didn’t imagine it getting this far. All that practicing in front of the mirror and he had no earthly idea how Rui would respond. Now that it’s happening, he feels himself calming a bit. Easing into the moment.

In the end, Rui meets Takeru’s nervous gaze, listens to him, accepts him quietly into his life. Once their initial dynamic is established, they spend evenings after work and school chatting in the house, walking in the open air, sharing meals and sunshine.

 

**v.**

It’s an especially hot summer’s day. Mikoto has gone out. A fan spins, circulating hot air in their living room. Rui is lazing about on a bamboo mat on the floor, looking like a cat stretched out in the sun when Takeru enters the room.

Seeing Rui splayed out on the floor sucking on a blue popsicle is making him feel some kind of way. Takeru would normally feel languid in the sun, but he is overcome by the sensation of his stomach knotting. He runs his hand down his temple and throat in an attempt to calm his champing nerves.

“Make yourself at home,” Takeru comments, settling down into the couch.

Rui reaches his arm out, proffering the blue popsicle. “Want to try?”

Takeru prays his face doesn’t display anything he doesn’t want it to display. “Sure.” He slides off the couch and onto the floor. He licks the popsicle, the flavor of cold ice and a little juice filling his mouth. Before he knows it Rui is licking the same popsicle. Shocked, he pulls his head back a minute as Rui grins. Takeru is staring into Rui’s bright eyes like red stars, like a twilight has seized him in his place.

“Is this okay?” Rui asks. Takeru just nods mutely. “Thanks for sharing with me, Takeru~”

A little juice drips down Takeru’s chin and Rui licks it off like it's nothing. The popsicle is forgotten as Takeru and Rui have their first cold kiss, brushing their lips together. Soon they are pressing tongues together, then drawing back to look into each other's eyes. Rui’s smile is as blue as his popsicle. Takeru wants to crash his face into Rui’s forever, dives back in, in, in, in.

Takeru’s eyelids go heavy and he smells Rui, an almost-sweet aroma mixed with the heat of his sun-warmed summer skin. The popsicle taste is sticky sweetness tangling softly in their mouths. He kisses intoxicating Rui almost violently all over his mouth and neck and exposed shoulder in his excitement, before Rui pulls back and taps a finger on his partner's lips. “No biting, Takeru,” he says. Then his wonderful scent is growing more and more overpowering until Takeru is asleep on the floor.

Rui, pleased with his handiwork, looks at Takeru lying peacefully on the floor. He smiles and gives the now gently sleeping Takeru a kiss on the forehead. “We’ll continue next time...” Rui slips out the door, footsteps soft as clouds.  
  
When Mikoto returns to the house, he sees Takeru passed out sweaty on the living room mat. He does not understand what has transpired. Rui is nowhere to be found.

  
  
**vi.**

When flowers turn to leaves turn to snow, Takeru is a little older and Rui becomes his lover. They meet nearly every evening, a light sweat building as they move in tandem, always a little tense due to the possibility of Mikoto coming home at any time.

Pushing into Rui fast and strong, Takeru loves taking in the feeling of his body connecting with Rui’s. Turning his face toward him to kiss sloppily, Takeru feels proud when he is able to elicit Rui’s moans, and flips him over to see his beautiful face and pink hair splayed out on the pillow. Takeru yields to the feeling, exploding with the friction as Rui does the same.

Afterwards, they curl up in bed.

“God, you're so cute, you know that, Rui?” Takeru says.

“You're so cute too, Takeru,” Rui says, snuggling in closer under his arm.

“Then how come you never showed those feelings to me before?” Takeru is confused, he looks almost like he's in pain.

“I could ask you the same thing,” Rui said, shrugging his one exposed shoulder. Beautiful Rui. Glamorous Rui. Those impassive eyes, boring into Takeru—how he fought the urge to overwhelm them, overcome them, be seduced by them.

“Actually, it's not easy for me,” Takeru started. He was uncharacteristically hesitant. “It's my first real time...doing anything like that, really.”

Saying it's his first real time is scary. But Rui just laughs a little, snuggles up until his lips touch Takeru’s ear and says, “Of course...I already know that, Takeru.”

Takeru shivers as Rui’s hot breath tickles his hair, sending it rustling over his ears. Takeru is comforted and unsettled by his lover’s words.

“Well...what about you?” says Takeru, flushing bright red.

Rui doesn't answer, just curves his cupid’s bow lips up in a smile-smirk like a hunter ready to strike his kill.  
  
Instead, he draws Takeru into another kiss, then another and another, as if to say _what does it matter if it's your first kiss when we're going to have thousands?_

 

**vii.**

They have been together for a month when Takeru confesses anyway.

“I want to properly confess,” Takeru says to Rui one day.

“You confessed to me with your body already,” says Rui with a straightforwardness that Takeru would one day emulate, but for now merely squirmed hearing.

“...Hey!” Takeru is getting hot around the ears with the thought of their contact.

“Are you telling me your confession wasn’t proper enough?” Rui says, skimming a finger down Takeru’s body teasingly. “It seemed pretty clear to me...”

“Rui!” Takeru launches himself away, not wanting to admit how worked up he’s gotten from Rui’s mere proximity. Judging from the look on Rui’s face, he just finds Takeru amusing. A spectacle.

Rui evades Takeru’s confession. “I’ll admit I’ve known for a while...”

“But how do you feel, Rui?” Takeru’s golden eyes are boring into him so intensely Rui cannot bring himself to meet his gaze.

They begin sleeping together more and more, taking comfort and pleasure in their affair. Rather than leaving the house after his work with Mikoto is done, Rui starts slipping secretly into Takeru’s room nearly every night.

The only thing he says is, “Promise me you won't take any other lovers, Takeru. There will be only me.”

Breathless, Takeru promises. “And you too, Rui,” he says, eyes shining. “I only want you, and I want you to only want me too...”

“But of course,” says Rui with a smile that swallows him whole.

 

**viii.**

They are spending days together, sleeping together nights, their love growing with the slow movements of the planets. Every night Takeru learns to pull Rui closer and Rui teaches him how to kiss and how to fuck.

And then, one day—

—Rui disappears.

Takeru feels betrayed, knocked breathlessly to the shore by the force of Rui’s absence.

He wishes he could call Rui, but there’s no phone line to the eidolon world. _He really did his best to cut me off_ , he thought bitterly.

After Rui left, Takeru couldn't eat or sleep for a week. He was plagued with the same kinds of thoughts just from missing Rui’s body beside him: _If only I could see him one more time, for real..._ What would change? _Just one more time that wasn't in a dream._

But no matter how much Takeru’s heart aches, there is a hole in his heart that the world without its eidolon could not fill. His body begins to change as if attempting to cast off the memories imbued in his cells. Those arms, legs, hands that had caressed Rui were taken over by greedily lengthening limbs, cells dying and self-replacing. His interests also shift, as he becomes serious about magic in a way his younger self would have reviled.

Takeru replays the morning Rui left in his mind. It’s been a few months after Rui and Mikoto’s case ends. Takeru wakes to find Rui gone. He had had such a refreshing sleep. It seemed idyllic but when he woke up he realized Rui is gone, leaving not so much as an impression on the pillow beside Takeru. Eventually, Takeru realized that Rui had given him an artificially perfect sleep, some kind of apology? erasure? unknowable statement on his departure.

Every time he sat down at the table to eat thoughts of Rui filled his brain. His throat felt choked up and closed off. His stomach growled loudly but the thought of eating was for the moment unbearable.

He declined dinner with his family a few times, saying he’d already eaten. Other times he sat with them but just stared moodily into space, moving meat and vegetables around on his plate. Magic study filled his days, both as a distraction and a heart-tearing reminder of his memories. Even his normally distant brother took it on himself to become involved.

“Takeru, what’s going on? Mikoto asked.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Takeru said.

“Can you be honest with me? Is this about Rui?”

“I really can’t talk about this right now.” An _I’m sorry_ dies in his throat. Angry tears almost pricked the corners of his eyes. This was really unlike him.

“If you’re sure...” Mikoto lingered by the door, hand on the doorframe, before turning back to his own room. “Good night, Takeru.”

 

**ix.**

Rui returns one midnight, sliding open Takeru's bedroom door and slipping to perch on his bed. He is silent as ever, footsteps like a cat’s. Takeru jumps when Rui’s fingers graze his neck, and he jolts up with a start before realizing who’s there. Rui presses a palm to his racing heart. “It's just me, Takeru,” he says. Takeru’s heart twinges. _There's no_ just _with you, Rui, don't you know that?_

Overwhelmed, Takeru tries to speak, but Rui has already seized his mouth. “You don't have to say anything,” Rui murmurs. “Just relax...”

Takeru lies back, pulling Rui to his side.

“You’ve gotten taller, Takeru...” Rui tells him. “And more handsome. In only six months...” He puts on a teasing smile, fingers quickly sliding up Takeru’s shirt.

Tension coils tight in his stomach as Rui’s cool hands are tugging his boxers down and running up his abdomen. No one has touched him like this in six months; when Rui’s lips meet his Takeru can't help but let out a moan. He buries his hands in Rui’s smooth hair and tries unsuccessfully to control his reaction to Rui’s particular brand of magic.

“It's been a long time,” Rui breathes when he comes up for air. “How does it feel, Takeru?”

Takeru is flushing, Rui’s red gaze is too compelling so he averts his eyes as he steadies himself. “It always feels good...you know that...you’re amazing as always, Rui, you shouldn't have to make me say that...”

Rui grins, lighthearted. “Looks like you said that all by yourself.”

Takeru is dizzy with lust and clouded by confusion. His body feels like it's on fire from being dipped in ice, his brain frozen and firing off, looping on Rui’s question.

_How does it feel, Takeru?_

_Well, Rui, after the feeling of overwhelming pleasure is stripped away it feels pretty damn bad._

_It feels like you stomped on my heart and threw it in a shredder._

_Rui, you changed who I was. Who I am._

_Why did you come back?_

_No, why did you leave in the first place?_

Rui, smiling his tight-lipped smile, does not answer.

Rui is fading away.

Takeru rushes—before it’s too late—reaches up to brush a shock of pink hair out of his face and gaze into Rui’s red eyes shrouded in darkness. A light is pulling him upward—the light of the moon, burning white like a sun spot—and Takeru wakes up in a cold sweat, his body burning, comforter kicked off, fully aroused. Bleary, his head pounding, the trace of his all-too-realistic dream flooding, fading from his head. _Fuck_. A second ago he was cupping Rui’s ears and leaning in for a kiss. Rui’s red eyes burn on his retina like sunspots as he blinks his bleary eyes. He could swear it was real if not for the crushing hollowness of the room.

He is six months older than the day Rui left, and still none the wiser.

 

**x.**

Takeru is studying hard these days. Every day he wakes, showers, and practices magic at school. He feels cold, cold, impressing other students, getting asked out by other students, rejecting other students. Every day missing the gentle brush of Rui’s lips, the feeling of Rui in his arms in the morning. Every day hating himself for helplessly awaiting Rui’s return.

This year he is in his junior year at school. His icy treatment of the girls and boys who have taken notice of him becomes a topic of gossip. Students speculate he has a lover or he is making it all up.

A slim, shy boy with silver-grey hair catches him at the end of the day. “Um, Takeru?” he says. “If you’re not too busy now, I wanted to talk...”

“Sure, what’s up?” Takeru says, slinging his bag over his shoulders.

This scene has happened before, only with a brown-haired girl who had chosen to approach him under the cherry trees. Just the same way he watched her walking off into the distance, he now watches the scorned boy retreat. Takeru almost wants to quirk a smile. How little it matters when his heart is already like this.

Seven months later, he is thinking of Rui even now, of a conservation they’d had one night in bed. First caressing the long curves of each other’s torsos, then Takeru pressing up against Rui’s leg impatiently. Takeru was kissing Rui’s neck, playing gently with the long strands of pink hair, when he paused to pull back and look Rui in the eyes. “Rui, you know I really, love you, right?”

Rui was moved in that moment. Takeru was just too cute when he spilled his feelings so boldly like that. “I do know,” he teased. “When did you fall in love with me?”

Takeru widens his eyes, sighs. “It was...about a year after we met. Right after the project was done, I hadn’t confessed to you yet, but I felt like if you left our house I wouldn’t be able to breathe... I felt like if we weren’t together nothing else would matter for the rest of my life.” Then Rui’s warm embrace, a reward for his honesty and vulnerability.

 _How intense are the feelings of youth_ , Rui thinks, but he has to admit to himself he has been nurturing a steadily growing love for Takeru since he caught wind of his developing curiosity, his shy jealousy, his cute boldness, and his innocent crush. Takeru was always trying to get Rui’s attention in obvious ways: Cute Takeru popping up behind corners and asking, “Rui, would you like some ice cream? Rui, would you like to go to the park? Rui, let’s solve this puzzle together...”

These memories go on and on. Takeru is drowning in sweet but painful reminiscence. He is so stubborn. It’s not that he can’t let go but that he won’t let go of Rui. Constantly replaying, repainting memories in his mind. _One would think you had a masochistic streak, Takeru,_ he can imagine Rui purring in his ear. _But I know differently, of course..._

One year of this would have been enough to break a weaker man, but not Takeru. One year later, out of youth he's built walls of stone around his heart. He'll be a wizard. And he’s be ready when Rui comes back.

 

**xi.**

“Ohhhh, Takeruuu!”

Takeru whirls around to see Yuzuki and Asato barrelling towards him, practically deranged looks on their faces.

“I heard you rejected Haruto!” Yuzuki cries, chest heaving with the exertion of chasing Takeru down from across the length of the hallway.

“He is cute,” remarks Asato. “To each his own...”

“Maybe he isn’t your type, Takeru?” Yuzuki asks, staring up at him with eyes like saucers.

“Do you like anyone, Takeru?” Asato’s lazy smile curves up as he asks.

“No,” Takeru answers coolly without thinking, an automatic response to avoid teasing throughout the school years. But a streak of pink flashes in Takeru’s mind and pangs attack his heart as he remembers how he felt when Rui talked to him.

Later, Takeru lies in bed and contemplates Asato’s question. Was it right for him to keep rejecting his classmates, no matter how cute or kind they were? He had always accepted his feelings for Rui, in fact his memories, while bittersweet, were what had ignited him to keep going. Replaying today’s interaction in his head, he can’t help but compare it to his memory of Rui: his classmate’s hopeful face falling, then Rui cupping his hand in his hair. There was no comparison. He would almost be frustrated that Rui was stuck in his head like putty, if not for the fact that his memories comforted him as much as they tormented him. There was really nothing like it. Sometimes he closes his eyes and runs his fingers through his hair like he and Rui used to do, but it was never even close to the same feeling he had before.

He is lying in bed but feels so restless. His fingers and legs twitch slightly, his heart, no stranger to pangs, beats faster. Mired in emotion, he feels trapped lying down, and rolls himself to a standing position to calm down. At the windowsill, Takeru pulls back his curtains, opens his the screen, and leans out into the cool night air. The full moon radiates light, drawing his gaze. Takeru feels pulled by the waves of the moon. Beyond the silver glow and passing clouds, who or what could be there? Could Rui be looking at the same moon from the other side?

Takeru’s lips start moving, and first voicelessly, he begins telling Rui everything he wants to say. No one can see him. Standing at his windowsill and talking to the moon, he doesn’t need to feel foolish. _Maybe you’ll see the moon, and talk to me too..._

One day Takeru will look back at the journals he filled when he wasn’t writing spells. The words he scribbled in the margins were less poems than scraps of prose, and less prose than pangs of idiocy:

_tracing your mark upon my heart_

_our space fit perfectly_

_i cannot bear to wake and leave your side_

_pull me closer and enter my dream_

_i hear your voice and i drown in it_

Fifteen, sixteen years old and he was writing that tripe. Mikoto has moved out and there is no one to listen to such foolishness anymore. He can’t talk to Asato for fear of being teased, and Yuzuki, sans experience, is too innocent to understand. Writing in his books, walking home alone, and talking to the moon, Takeru sets his resolve, and fastens to wait. Let his heart full of longing spill over and keep flowing—let him drown in limerence. He will become a wizard, and he will wait.

  
  
  
  
****


End file.
